The invention relates to a method for obtaining banana juice and banana essences from bananas.
Bananas consist of a pulp covered by a peel. The pulp includes water, sugars, cellulosic constituents, residual starch, and flavor and aroma components which include, in general, a variety of alcohols, aldehydes, esters, and ketones. The peel of a ripe banana consists of an outer epidermis, a yellow colored layer (chlorenchyma) and a white inner layer (parenchyma). Mixtures of aroma components essentially free of sugars and other solid constituents of the pulp are known as banana essences.
It is known that banana essences can be obtained from ripened bananas, after the peels are manually removed and discarded, by homogenizing the pulp and recovering volatile components from the homogenized pulp by drawing off the volatile components under vacuum.
It is also known that banana juice can be obtained from ripened bananas, after the peels are manually removed and discarded, by homogenizing the pulp; digesting the homogenized pulp with an enzyme to cause the pulp to evolve into a solid and a liquid portion (the banana juice); and separating the liquid portion from the solid portion.
The term banana juice, as used herein, refers to a solution including the water and sugars from the banana pulp, essentially free of any components of the pulp that are insoluble in water.
The term de-flavored banana juice, as used herein, means banana juice that is essentially free of the volatile flavor and aroma components of the pulp.
The term concentrated de flavored banana juice, as used herein, is the de flavored banana juice concentrated removing part of the water by evaporation.